Help catching baby clowns

[reefcam]

Okay, not yet. But last night while looking in the tank to see how my pregnant bangaii is doing, I noticed my clowns have also laid eggs. Not that this is the first time, but I like to try to salvage the babies if possible. Any thoughts on I can collect the babies when they hatch? I can move the rock out, but is that smart, or wait till they hatch? I do have the Wilkinson book, but she never covered the topic on your clown breeding in a community tank. Also is there an alternatives to feeding the frys, other than newly hatch brines? Golden Pearls?

Thanks
Jim

 

[liquid]

Best thing to do would be to either move the rock out the night they are going to hatch or else catch the fry right after they hatch. I believe Wilkerson went over the hatch times for various species in her book.

If you are going to let them hatch in your display tank, you will need to shut off all your pumps right before lights out so everything is still in your tank for the hatch. Once the fry hatch, use a flashlight to congregate them in a corner of your tank and then dip them out with a cup.

HTH

Shane

 

[jamesw]

Newly hatched brine is too large for clownfish fry to eat. You will need rotifer-sized live foods for them.

HTH
James

 

[Rich-n-poor]

The easiest way to catch tiny little clowns is with a very small volkswagon beetle just place it in the corner of the tank and they will by their very nature see how many of them can fit inside

sorry I tried to resist that one but couldn't

_________________
Korean Forum

 

[reefcam]

Guess I'll be looking for some rotifers. I'll check my wilkinson book again.

The rock is too big for me to take it out and put it in the refugium. Plus, the refugium has been reserved for the baby bangaiis that'll come about the same time as the baby clowns.

My 2 year old son does have a yellow beetle. I think it's the older model, and it comes with a surf board on top. Will this work?

 

[bgdiving]

Usually the fry will hatch about 2 hours after lights out and they will be attracted to a dim light in one corner of the tank facilitaing removal. The Banggais will present a problem since they are very active noctural predators. I've spawned and reared both clowns and Banggais but never from the same tank. Good luck and yes rotifers are your best bet for the first few days.

 

[SeaView]

Congradulations.

If you are serious about raising the fry then getting one of the books on the topic is a must. You will have very limited to no success without this resource.

When my skunk clowns were spawning I placed a flat rock right next to their anemone. They quicky began using this rock to lay eggs, and I could easily remove it to a rearing tank.

Leave the eggs witht the adults until they are due to hatch. The adults fan and clean the eggs maticulously and increase the success of the spawn.

Getting the adult to spawn and eggs to hatch is the easy part. Providing the correct environment and food for the newly hatched fry, which look like they could get beat up by a large brine shrimp, is the real challenge.

e-mail me if you would like more info.

Good luck,

Steve

 

[davelin315]

The last time I tried to remove fry from a tank, the night they hatched, I put an airlift tube in the tank right next to where they were, and let this flow into a mesh container (the bubbles don't harm the frye and carry them up to the container, which is suspended over the water). The problem was, the mesh was way too big, and acted as a gill net instead of saving them. If you could find a fine enough mesh (maybe pantyhose) this was an incredibly effective way of moving the frye from where they hatched to a holding area. Again, it doesn't hurt them, and it also didn't bother the mother. I would suggest putting an head on each end of the lift tube, that way you don't allow predators (like shrimp) to crawl into the tube and damage themselves and the frye.